Monitoring Desk
WASHINGTON: US officials said on Thursday that Washington has agreed to provide longer-range bombs to Ukraine as it prepares to initiate a spring offensive to retake territory Russia captured in 2022. Several US officials added that the US will give ground-launched small diameter bombs as part of a $2.17 billion aid assistance it is likely to announce Friday.
Kyiv-Washington
AP reported that the aid package for the first time includes equipment to link all the different air defense systems to help Ukraine better defend against Russia’s missile strikes.
US officials have hesitated to provide longer-range systems to Kyiv out of concern that they would be used to hit inside Moscow, escalating the war and drawing the Washington deeper in.
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The longer-range bombs are the up-to-date advanced system, such as Abrams battle tanks and the Patriot missile system, that the United States has eventually agreed to supply Ukraine after initially refused. US, though, have continued to reject Kyiv’s requests for fighter jets.
Ukraine’s minister for defense Oleksii Reznikov, said Kyiv is prepared to offer guarantees to its alliances in West that their arms won’t be used to strike inside Russia’s territory, saying that Moscow needs arms with a range of up to 300 kilometers to expel the Russian troops.
